Governor Okpebholo’s latest award as the Governor of the Year in education is a clear recognition of his huge investment to rescuing the sector from its previous rots by the immediate past Governor Godwin Obaseki. Edo state educational sector was abandoned despite the hoopla that greeted the touted EDOBESST program.
By the time Okpebholo took over the reins of government, educational institutions were nothing to write home about. School buildings were in rots, dilapidated, and abandoned. Teachers were neglected, insufficient teachers became the order of the day. Unpaid salaries took the centre stage, while there was drop in the quality of teaching and school curricula. The previous administration played politics with education, almost succeeded in derailing the academic roadmap of the two state universities, owed salaries, and shouted EdoBesst to the roof top just to confuse the unsuspecting members of the public.
By the time Okpebholo assumed office, Edo schools were clearly begging for urgent attention. Most schools in the heart of Benin City were in a state of dilapidation. The Governor had to swing into action. First, his intervention in bailing out Ambrose Alli University, was timely. During the Obaseki administration, the monthly subvention for the University dropped to forty-one million naira (N41m) monthly from the initial two hundred and forty million naira.
Added to this were salary arrears that piled up to about fifteen months without payment. The Governing Council of the University was replaced by an incompetent and obscure Interim Caretaker Committee that was at variance with the norm in University education. Okpebholo immediately increased the subvention from N41m to N500m monthly to bail out the university from long years of neglect. He disbanded the Caretaker Committee, replaced it with a properly constituted Governing Council, chaired by Chief Dan Orbih. He also put in place processes that threw up a new validly appointed Vice Chancellor for the University.
He commenced the payment of 15-months salary arrears and also cleared the backlog of uncleared 810 nursing students who ought to have graduated and inducted into the Nursing profession. He regularised their JAMB records and the University inducted them in line with best practices. He also extended the same gesture to the Edo State University, Uzairue which was brazenly abandoned without monthly subvention. As we speak, that University enjoys a monthly subvention of N250m coupled with internally generated revenue.
Secondary and Primary education were in shambles; dilapidated school buildings, unkempt environment, insufficient teachers and a general feeling of apathy and despondency greeted the schools. When Okpebholo assumed office, he recruited five thousand teachers that were hitherto kept as casuals, and distributed them across the schools in the state. He also commenced the repairs and rejuvenation of the dilapidated schools such that within a year of his assumption, sixty-eight schools (68) had been restored to their past glory. Chairs and tables were supplied, water supplies were restored, and students intake multiplied.
Today, the story of Edo schools has taken a new dimension for good. Edo schools now boast of teachers and learning equipment. Bursary that was long forgotten has been restored. The Governor gave a take off Bursary grant of one billion naira and appointed a committee that would superintend over the grant. The number of schools that have so far been rebuilt has increased to over eighty. The Governor has concluded plans to recruit additional 3,000 teachers to augment the present figure in order to properly reposition Edo Schools. Okpebholo has also commenced the construction of the 150-bed hospital that would serve as the Permanent Teaching Hospital for the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma.
Added to this is the School of Nursing, Udomi being built from the scratch to enhance Nursing education for the health sector. The supply of chairs and tables is still ongoing and school intake has quadrupled. According to Governor Okpebholo, “it is a sacrilege to see our schools in such state of disrepair, with insufficient teachers, that were unmotivated, yet expected to impact knowledge”.
This latest award by the New Telegraph Newspaper, is a fitting testimony to the Governor’s sense of urgency to revamp such an important sector in the state. Education is the bedrock of any nation and playing politics with education in the name of the now moribund EdoBesst program, was the most untenable thing to do at a time when there is a renewed global awakening in the education of the growing youths. Okpebholo’s no-nonsense approach to education is second to none. He has repeatedly said that there would be no decayed schools under his watch as Governor of the state.
His achievements in this sector caught the attention of the management and staff of the New Telegraph Newspaper to bestow him with this glorious award of Governor of the Year in Education. We can only ask for more awards to motivate him further to deliver more achievements across the state. Congratulations to Governor Okpebholo. Congratulations to Edo state.
